Conventionally, television games have been developed in many ways, for example, as home video game dedicated machines, coin-operated arcade game machines and the like, and also as game software which can be run by a general-purpose computer such as a personal computer. On the other hand, with the recent advances in the communications infrastructures, game programs provided through a communication network such as the Internet have become popular as distributed by the so-called online gaming services, which are taking place the conventional distribution through recording mediums such as CD-ROM.
One of the above games is a sports simulation game such as a golf game which proceeds on various conditions as given, for example, the shooting direction, the magnitude of impact, the strike point and other set values relating to the operation of the player, which are input when a player makes a shot. These various conditions are input through a graphic user interface (GUI) displayed in a screen with an input interface such as a mouse or a controller of the game device.
Meanwhile, in the case of sports simulation games, a variety of GUIs have been developed and proposed. For example, the above various conditions (data) such as input timing are changed in accordance with the skill of the player in order to make the game more exciting, as described in Patent Document 1.
The technique as described in this Patent Document 1 makes use of a power gauge (input object) as a GUI for determining the power and accuracy of a shot. This power gauge is, for example, a beltlike gauge which is displayed in the lower portion of the game screen and extending in the right and left direction, and provided with a scroll bar which moves as time goes on, when making a shot to indicate the magnitude of impact for the shot by the position of the scroll bar. Also, this power gauge is provided with an impact zone, which indicates the best timing point at the center position thereof, for the purpose of determining the accuracy of the shot.
Then, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, when the initial operation (first operation) is done by a player with a controller connected to the game device, the game device controls the scroll bar to move at a constant speed from the position corresponding to a power level of “0%” to the position corresponding to a power level of “100%”. Next, the player performs the second operation of the controller in the timing the scroll bar reaches the position corresponding to a desired power level. When the second operation of the controller is performed, the power level is set in correspondence with this timing as the power level which is input and determined by the player. The player (character) as displayed in the screen performs a shooting motion in accordance with this power level. By this configuration, the golf ball shot by the character is controlled and displayed in order that it flies the distance corresponding to the magnitude of impact in the direction corresponding to the various conditions as input.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Published Application No. 2004-216165